As a natural prebiotic, LacNAc plays an important role in the regulation of the intestinal microbial environment. CD BioGlyco supplies suitable synthesis methods to achieve efficient production of LacNAc.
LacNAc (Galβ1, 4GlcNAc) is present in human milk as a free disaccharide. This compound is an important component of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). It has repetitive and variable branched lactose and/or LacNAc units, usually linked to sialic acid and fucose monosaccharides.
Human glycohydrolases do not degrade most HMOs, indicating that these structures have evolved into natural prebiotics to drive the correct assembly of healthy infant intestinal microbiota. LacNAc has been proven to be the major bifidogenic factor in the 1950s. Some HMOs contain lactose (Galβ1-4Glc) at their reducing ends, which can be added β1-3- or β1-6-linked lacto-N-biose (Galβ1-3GlcNAc) or LacNAc. Then, Lactose or oligosaccharide can be fucosylated by fucosyltransferases in α1-2, α1-3, or α1-4 linkage and/or sialylated by sialyltransferases in α2-3 or α2-6 linkage to produce various terminal structures. Yoshida et al. characterized the β-galactosidase of Bifidobacterium longum subsp.infantis to determine how the organism degrades type-1 (lactose-N-disaccharide) and type-2 (LacNAc) isomers of HMOs.
Fig.1 Coupled microbial synthesis of LacNAc. (Karimi Alavijeh, et al., 2021)
LacNAc is a constituent of glycoproteins and glycolipids in the gastrointestinal tract. These backbones are used to connect core structures, which are directly attached to proteins or lipid aglycones with terminal sugars. LacNAc building blocks and terminal sugars also act as important precursors of a variety of blood type epitopes (Lewis A, Lewis B, sialyl Lewis A), and they participate in biological processes, including fertilization, the mediation of cell adhesion, and the adhesion of pathogens to colon cells.
LacNAc itself can act as a natural prebiotic and as a building block for the production of various bioactive oligosaccharides, especially since this synthesis can be used to increase the value of lactose in dairy products. Chemical and enzymatic synthetic processes are the most commonly evaluated methods for LacNAc production. Compared with enzymatic synthesis, the yield of LacNAc produced by chemical synthesis is lower, which has more disadvantages in industrial production. In recent years, glycoside hydrolases and β-galactosidases with hydrolytic and transglycosylation activities have received special attention for the regioselective and stereoselective synthesis of LacNAc oligosaccharides.
CD BioGlyco provides a variety of methods to produce LacNAc. Among them, enzymatic synthesis is the most suitable method for the large-scale production of LacNAc. Our researchers will further focus on robust enzyme development and reaction technology optimization to achieve large-scale production of LacNAc and its derivative oligosaccharides. Our Technologies for HMO Production include but are not limited to the following:
A complete and mature service product line from strain development to mass manufacturing.
CD BioGlyco made many achievements in the field of production services of LacNAc, which are widely praised by clients internationally. If you have any further queries, please contact us directly for more details.
References
